Comedy Central has debuted the first original sketch from its new partnership with The Second City, and just in time for your Thanksgiving trip home, it’s a riff on the eternal bleakness of hometown bars around the holidays.
“‘Twas the night before Thanksgiving and all through the city / the booze began flowing — folks about to get s—ty,” the bartender in the sketch says melodically as he pours drinks for an increasingly drunk and increasingly sad crew of former high school friends. “When what to my wandering eye should appear? / Every D-bag from high school reuniting right here.”
The sketch, titled “What Every Bar in Your Hometown Is Like on Thanksgiving Eve,” was directed by Alice Mathias. Ryan Asher, Tien Tran, Tyler Davis, Jeff Murdoch, Kelsey Kinney, Nate Varrone and Tim Kazurinsk star.
The sketch is the first in Comedy Central’s digital partnership with the comedy theater, with more original comedy sketches set to roll out on the Viacom network’s digital channels next year.
“Working with Second City is an incredible opportunity to merge two of the most iconic brands in sketch comedy,” said Steve Elliott, vice president of talent and development for Comedy Central Digital. “Plus, they had killer recommendations for the best Deep Dish in Chicago. We can’t wait to do more with Second City and build on the immense success we are seeing with our Comedy Central original digital content.”
Comedy Central has made digital content a key part of its strategy in the last year, touting year-over-year growth on social media and digital thanks to extensions of linear series like “The Daily Show,” as well as online originals like the “Mini-Mocks” sketch series on Facebook.
The Second City partnership builds on the network’s existing approach of uploading sketch content from its library of shows to YouTube, including bits from “Key & Peele,” “Alternatino with Arturo Castro” and “Chappelle’s Show.”